Mom Goes Green

Obviously, with my stepdad in the hospital in critical condition, I’m feeling quite a bit blue rather than ‘thinking green’… but in between hospital visits I have been finding time to keep up on some of my green reading and preoccupy myself.

I read an article on Planet Green about “10 Surprising Reuses for Bread Tabs” and I admit it made me smile.  First of all, I never envisioned so many uses for these ridiculous little tabs!… “gunk scapers”, wine glass charms, electrical cord labels?  Pretty smart actually.

But it made me smile because this kind of thinking is actually the epitome of my stepdad, Ted.  He always manages to find new uses for everything.  In fact, the car he was driving when he had the accident was made almost entirely of salvaged and reused parts… a plastic Miller Lite bottle was even converted into an overflow reservoir for one of the engine fluids!  In his garage, coffee cans, pickle jars and plastic bottles are premium storage containers.  T-shirts that have taken a beating from all of his mechanical work and “building” are turned into his garage rags.  Milk jugs are turned into drip pans and the leather from an old jacket (that got torn) was given new life by becoming the seat of one of the motorcycles he built.

I would never tell him how “green” he really is, because he would probably deny it but sorry Dad… all this reusing is SO GREEN!

Today, take the time to find something that can be reused instead of thinking of it as trash.  Raise your “reusable”, give thanks that you have the ability to do so and send us another little prayer … Dad is still critical but we continue to hope and pray that he’ll soon be back on his feet to let the reusing continue…